The journal is affiliated to Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University

Welcome

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to introduce of the scholarly journal European Polygraph, which henceforth will be published quarterly. The original of European Polygraph is its electronic version.

The home of the polygraph is the United States; it was there that the first polygraph was built and first used in practice. A substantial portion of the scientific studies fundamental to polygraph research was also conducted in the United States and the results have been published in American scientific and specialist journals. Finally, the United States host the largest organisation in the world for persons involved in various aspects of polygraph examinations – the American Polygraph Association.

Asia is without a doubt the second continent – after America – in which the polygraph has entered into permanent practise and is the subject of scientific research. Scientific and experimental research on the polygraph, analysis of its practical applications, and the widespread use of polygraph examinations in Israel and Japan are well-known. The polygraph is popular in many other Asian countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

The use of polygraph examinations in Latin America is also known. In Europe, the polygraph has been used relatively the least, or at any rate information on it has been the least well-known. Further, European scientific work on polygraph examinations seems disproportionately meagre compared to European scientific potential.

Traditionally, Western Europe has not been favourably disposed in general toward polygraph examinations. Further, the work on polygraph examinations conducted in Central and Eastern Europe – apart perhaps from Poland and the former Yugoslavia – was also not widely known around the world. After the unification of Europe – made possible with the fall of communism and the end of Soviet domination in the region that took place several years ago – it is possible to speak once again about a single European science. As it turns out, many Central and Eastern European countries have their own – though not widely known – body of scientific work and practical experience with polygraph examinations. The attitude toward polygraph examinations is changing in Western countries as well, as evidenced by the increasingly wider use of the polygraph by the Belgian police or the change in attitudes toward the polygraph noted in Germany.

Our journal was conceived as an international forum upon which to present the achievements and scientific research in polygraph examinations. The forum will also serve as a means by which to exchange practical experience from many countries and publish book reviews of works devoted to the subject.

The issue of polygraph examinations includes basic research in myriad fields such as psychology, psychiatry, psychophysiology, criminology, forensic sciences – and in the near future – certainly also neurophysiology and others. The journal will also deal with approaches and research conducted as part of criminal justice, jurisprudence (criminal procedure), human rights, labour law, and others. It will also contain philosophical and strictly ethical reflections on polygraph examinations. Our objective is to publish works on polygraph examinations from this broad spectrum of sciences.

We will publish both the results of experimental research, as well as analyses of practises, case studies, works on the history of polygraph examinations, legal considerations on polygraph examinations and their admissibility in investigations and court cases, as well as pre-employment and control examinations such as those used in the civil service and in business.

We will also publish training materials based on practical experience, book reviews of works on polygraph examinations, and proceedings from conferences and seminars devoted to the subject.

We invite all of you to co-operate in this endeavour.

Prof. Jan Widacki LL.D.
Editor-in-Chief

ISSN 1898-5238
The journal is indexed in Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (10 points).